Saturday, February 05, 2005

And I Thought The McDonald's Lawsuit Was Bad

In my post on Personal Responsibility (Jan 26, 2005, in the Archives) I blasted the two fat kids who are suing McDonald's over their own obesity. Talk about the need for tort reform! Talk about a frivolous lawsuit! I thought I'd seen it all.

2 comments:

I have to agree with you on this one, but for the sake of arguement. The girls did drop off the cookies at 10:00 PM or some other late hour and caused the woman to have a near heart attack in the small rural town. Not to mention that a mulititude of people have come forward with offers of money to cover the entire cost of the ordeal.

Even jacques chirac...Uhh I mean the devil needs an advocate sometimes.

I don't think people should be held financially liable unless they have been negligent or else directly caused some harm. While I agree that 10pm is late, it doesn't strike me that a "reasonable person" (the standard used in such court cases) would say, "Knocking on this door at 10pm might cause this woman such terror that she'd have to go to the hospital."

This case fails the "reasonable person" standard, and yet the girls still lost. Apparently the judge applied the law, not letting his personal feelings interfere (he seemed to side with the girls and didn't award any pain and suffering damages), and I commend him for that. Still, I see this case as a travesty of justice.